SPIRITUAL MIDWIFERY ON THE FARM

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There's a growing national interest in the subjects of home birth and midwifery, as couples who are about to have children feel an urge to return to more natural and appropriate birthing practices. The idea of an aware, drugless childbirth . . . in the comfort and security of one's own home ... attended by an experienced midwife ... with one's husband and any previous children in the family close by to greet the new infant ... is one that just 'feels right" to an ever increasing number of mothers-to-be.

In Europe, as in most other parts of the world, the majority of births still take place in the home. Only in America do the greater number now occur in hospitals. But this peculiarity of our culture is being widely reexamined, thanks to people like Stephen Gaskin (see The Plowboy Papers, MOTHER NO. 45) and his wife Ina May of The Farm in Tennessee.

Mrs. Gaskin's 1975 book-Spiritual Midwifery?now in a second, expanded edition, has played an important part in the back-to-natural-birth trend. For?even if you don't go along with every tenet of the lifestyle followed at The Farm—it's hard to fault the success of the community's home birth program, which after more than 750 births boasts statistics far superior to those of many major hospitals.

Ina May wrote the following article expressly for MOTHER's readers, as a basic introduction to her far lengthier book. We think you'll find it worthwhile information ... whether you're an expectant parent or not.

Portions of this article have been axtracted? by permission—from Spiritual Midwifery by Ins May Gaskin, copyright 1978 by The Book Publishing Company, Summertown , Tennesse 38483. The book is available (clothbound $12.50 and in paperback for $8.50) from the publisher, from any good bookstore, or (in paperback only, for $8.50 plus 95¢ shipping and handling) from Mother's Bookshelf.

We are a group of 11 empirical midwives (I use "empirical" instead of "lay" because I like the connotations better . . . "lay" implies some kind of priesthood, which is just what we're trying to get away from) who deliver babies and provide primary health care for our spiritual community of 1,100 longhaired vegetarians.

We have been a self-sufficient farming community since 1971, when the first 300 of us settled on our land near Summertown, Tennessee. We've been practicing spiritual midwifery-for ourselves and for a lot of other people-for about seven years, delivering children naturally and at home by the techniques we've developed. We feel strongly that birth is a holy sacrament, that it belongs to the family, and that the family's rights should not be usurped in this part of our lives.

The practice of midwifery is a huge wave that's gathering now, all over the planet. In fact, 80 percent of the world's population customarily brings its babies into the world with the help of midwives. It's only in the technological countries that the usual practice is to have men delivering babies and men having the main say-so about how pregnancy, childbirth, and child raising are managed.